This is our Independence Day! (but July Fourth happens elsewhere, too): Not to slight our national birthday, but the Fourth of July has been linked to lots of other world events over the centuries, and many of them have had movies made about them.

• Case in point, July 4, 1887, saw the defeat of Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, at the hands of Saladin in the Battle of Hattin. And both were featured players in Ridley Scott's 2005 epic "Kingdom of Heaven" starring Orlando Bloom.

• In 1802, West Point opened and in 1898, Martin Maher began a 50-year career there, a life that was dramatized in the 1955 movie "The Long Gray Line," starring Tyrone Power.

• Speaking of Jefferson, he and his presidential predecessor, John Adams — both 1776 signers of the Declaration of Independence — died within hours of each other exactly 50 years after that historical milestone. You can seek out countless TV documentaries, movies and miniseries on the pair.

• On July 4, 1862, in a village outside Oxford, England, Lewis Carroll told a story of a girl on a strange and magical journey to his young friend, Alice Liddell. Precisely three years later, July 4, 1865, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was published. A full 86 years later (in July, but later than the Fourth, alas), Disney released its animated version of the classic tale.